About

Gurren Lagann (Japanese: 天元突破グレンラガン Tengen Toppa Guren Ragan, lit. “Heaven-Piercing Gurren Lagann”) is a mecha anime created by Gainax. It details the adventures of Simon, a boy living in a sub-terrain village, who manages to break to the surface with his friend Kamina, using a machine named a Gunmen. They soon meet a girl named Yoko, and explore the surface world together. The show has gained a considerable online fanbase both in Japan and in the west, spawning fan art, sub-memes and cosplay.

History

Gurren Lagann was originally a 27 episode anime produced by Gainax, airing between April 1 and September 30 2007 in Japan, and dubbed in English on November 18 2008. The success of the series eventually spawned 2 special episodes, as well as two films titled “Gurren Lagann The Movie: Childhood’s End” and “Gurren Lagann The Movie: The Lights in the Sky are Stars”, being released in 2008 and 2009 respectivly. As well as this, the series also spawned a manga series which retold the events of the anime, as well as two spin-off manga titled “Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: Gurren Gakuen-hen”, which retold the series in the setting of a Highschool, and “Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann 4-koma Kingdom: Yoko no Oheso-hen”, which acted as a gag Manga.

Reception

Gurren Lagann has received critical acclaim, receiving many awards such as an Excellence Prize at the Japan Media Arts Festival in 2007[1], as well as winning the “Best Television Production” award at the Tokyo Anime Awards in 2008. The series has also had a large impact on popular culture. In January 2009, British newspaper The Daily Telegraph held an online competition to design the new Union Jack for their flag, following a controversy about the Welsh Dragon requested into the design. User Partyvan.info’s design was declared the winner, a flaming skull with Gurren Lagann character Kamina’s sunglasses[2].

Online Relevance

Gurren Lagann has a large presence on sites such as Tumblr[3], Reddit[4], 4chan’s /a/ anime and manga[5] and /m/ mecha[6] boards and DeviantArt[7]. As well as this, sites such as Anime News Network[8], TV Tropes[9] and the Gurren Lagann wiki[10] offer information on the series. The series has a large presence on video sharing sites such as Nico Nico Douga[11] and Youtube[12], as well as over 300 fanfics on Fanfiction.net[13]. The Facebook page for the show also has over 27,000 likes also[14].

Notable Sub-memes

Row Row Fight the Power

Row Row Fight the Power is a popular catchphrase first mentioned in a song “Libera Me From Hell”, which was included as part of the Gurren Lagann soundrack. This phrase grew in popularity on 4chan, most notably after 4chan creater Moot had edited the layout of the /b/ random board to turn all new posts to the line, sparking many of it’s users to spam the line on the other boards.

When I’m Bored

When I’m Bored is a video remix series featuring short clips and images played alongside the Audiostalkers remix of “Let Me Hit It” by Sporty-O. The original video was uploaded to Youtube on August 31 2010 by Youtuber ancsagirl95[15], and included short clips of the character Yoko.

Gurren Lagann Eyecatch Parodies

Gurren Lagann Eyecatch Parodies refer to a number of parodies created surrounding the Eyecatch used during the airing of the anime. These became a popular source of parody on both Nico Nico Douga and Youtube.

Kamina Glasses

Kamina Glasses refers to a photoshop exploitabke, in which the character Kamina’s glasses are photoshopped onto a number of different people and objects.